Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama wants to see
Edward Snowden clapped in irons and bound to the U.S. for a
criminal trial. Two Norwegian politicians have a different fate
in mind for Snowden: the Nobel Peace Prize.

Norwegian parliamentarians Snorre Valen and Baard Vegar
Solhjell nominated Snowden for the award -- the same honor
Obama himself won in 2009 -- for his disclosures about National
Security Agency spying.

The idea that the Nobel committee would bestow its most
prestigious prize on a man some in the U.S. consider a traitor
drew a dismissive response from a White House official, who said
Snowden instead should be tried as a felon.

Snowden “should be returned to the U.S. as soon as
possible, where he will be accorded full due process,” White
House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.

Snowden’s leaks “often shed more heat than light, while
revealing methods to our adversaries that could impact our
operations in ways that we may not fully understand for years to
come,” she said.

Two Norwegians agreed that Snowden’s leaks undoubtedly
“damaged the security interests of several nations in the short
term” and that they didn’t necessarily condone or support all
his disclosures. The revelations did have a positive impact,
they said.

Sparking Debate

“The public debate and changes in policy that have
followed in the wake of Snowden’s whistleblowing have
contributed to a more stable and peaceful world order,” Valen
and Solhjell, who represent the Socialist Left Party in the
Norwegian parliament, wrote in their nomination letter, which
was obtained by Bloomberg. Solhjell was environment minister in
the former Labor-led government.

Obama was spurred to make changes in U.S. surveillance
programs in response to domestic and international backlash that
resulted from disclosures made by Snowden, who has temporary
asylum in Russia after being charged under espionage laws in the
U.S.

The Nobel committee doesn’t release the names of nominees
for 50 years, though those who make the nominations are free to
do so. Nominees may be given to the five-member committee by a
government and court officials, academics, board members of
organizations that have received the prize, as well as past
winners.

Valen in 2011 nominated Wikileaks, an anti-secrecy group
that previously released secret U.S. government documents and
which has been assisting Snowden. Bradley Manning, a U.S.
soldier who is serving a 35-year sentence for providing
documents to Wikileaks, was nominated last year.

No Impact

Valen said he had no worry that the nomination, or even the
award of the prize, would draw a negative response from the U.S.

“The U.S. is one of the world’s most democratic and free
societies,” Valen said in an e-mail today. “I feel confident
that a peace prize to Snowden will not affect US-Norwegian
relations. I have more trust in Barack Obama’s democratic
thinking than that of China’s.”

The criteria for those who may offer nominations has
resulted in a broad collection of major and minor historical
figures being offered for consideration.

Past nominees have included dictators Benito Mussolini of
Italy in 1935 and Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany in 1939. Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin was nominated twice, in 1945 and 1948,
according to the Nobel organization. None received the prize.

The Nobel committee received 256 candidates for the Peace
Prize in 2013, according the organization’s website. It is
awarded annually on Dec. 10 in Oslo.

Pursuing Snowden

Snowden, 30, fled to Hong Kong and then to Russia after
leaking classified documents on the U.S. National Security
Agency spying programs. Attorney General Eric Holder said last
week that if Snowden wanted to return to the U.S. and plead
guilty, prosecutors would be willing to negotiate.

The five-member U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight
Board, created by Congress under post Sept. 11 anti-terrorism
laws, concluded in a majority opinion issued Jan. 23 that the
collection of bulk telephone data is illegal and should be
stopped. Their report found that the program to collect and
store the records has provided only “minimal” help in
thwarting terrorist attacks.

The privacy panel has no authority to change the programs
and Obama presented his own plan earlier this month. The
president said he would continue to allow government use of bulk
phone records yet would prevent NSA from storing the data and
require the agency get court approval to use it.

Federal courts have delivered conflicting rulings on
whether the NSA program is permitted under U.S. law. On Dec. 27,
U.S. District Judge William Pauley III concluded the
surveillance didn’t violate the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth
Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures.
Days earlier, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington
ruled the program probably violates privacy rights.